I am a Freeman.
I am a freeman! ’Tis my boast and my pride,
The blue sky is o’er me, the dark soil beneath,
And spreading around is the wilderness wide;
My bath is the lake, my couch is the heath,
My rod and my rifle my larder provide—
I am a freeman! ’Tis my boast and my pride,
I am a freeman! True freedom is mine;
I slay when I choose, yet spare when I will;
For my food use the bullet, or cast out the line,
But never, like fools, from wantonness kill.
My “roof-tree” is lofty, my dining-hall wide—
I am a freeman! ’Tis my boast and my pride.
The eagle above me soars lofty and free,
He knows that I’ll speed no bullet at him—
He is game for a tyrant, but never for me,
While he sits on his nest on that old pine limb.
A life in the woods some men may deride,
But freedom is there, my boast and my pride.
I roam through the wild wood o’er skim or the lake,
My wreaths are of laurel, my plumes never fade;
I sleep when the night falls, with the dawn am awake,
To hunt the red deer while they feed in the glade.
I’m joyous and free as a bird of the air,—
A son of the forest, a stranger to care.